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About USU

The mission of the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences is to educate, train, and comprehensively prepare uniformed services health professionals, scientists, and leaders to support the Military and Public Health Systems, the National Security and National Defense Strategies of the United States, and the readiness of our Uniformed Services.

Academics

Since our first graduating class in 1982, the USU's MDs. Nurses and graduates in biomedical sciences provide exceptional service through service in the U.S. Military and civilian careers of distinction. Today, America's Medical School has 691 enrolled students and 5,043 graduates. Over 1,300 graduates in Biomedical Sciences lead aggressive research in medical research. Today's 663 graduates of the School of Nursing blend science, research and field training in advanced practice and PhD degrees. The USU's Postgraduate Dental College provides advanced degree's to the military's dental community, graduating 72 students since establishment.

Research At USU

The University's research program covers a range of clinical and other topics important to both the military and public health. Infectious diseases, trauma medicine, health maintenance, and cancer are areas of particular strength. Researchers are also making important new efforts in state-of-the-art fields that cut across disciplines, such as genomics, proteomics, and drug-delivery mechanisms.

Centers

USU is home to many different Centers and Institutes, which help advance the university's research, education and public service missions. Faculty members and students collaborate with other leading experts at USU's Centers and Institutes on projects that push incredible boundaries across manifold disciplines of biomedical science. Their work is shaping military medicine and world health in many positive, powerful ways.

Military At USU

The USU's military unique curriculum is supported by military professions from all services who teach USU's military and civilian students. All military personnel are supported by the USU Brigade, the Brigade staff are managed by the Military Personnel Office.

AFRRI At USU

AFRRI mission is to preserve the health and performance of U.S. military personnel and to protect humankind through research that advances understanding of the effects of ionizing radiation.

To these ends, the institute collaboratively researches the biological effects of ionizing radiation and provides medical training and emergency response to manage incidents related to radiation exposure.

Graduate School of Nursing

Graduate School of Nursing

Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing

The University’s Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing (GSN), established in 1993 with the Family Nurse Practitioner Program, has since grown in size and scope. After celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2013, the year 2014 served as a “year of transition” when the school initiated its Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree program — with accreditation and full execution of integration with the services. The first class graduated in spring 2015. Today, the GSN has a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program option for clinical nurse specialists, DNP program with specialty tracks for nurse practitioners and nurse anesthetists, and Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing Science program.

GSN graduates achieve a level of competence and professionalism that far exceeds professional standards. They benefit from a practice and evidence based curriculum that emphasizes operational and field medicine as well as military families, health conditions unique to federal and military beneficiaries, and of course, military and health care leadership. Our alumni are distinguished by their focus on advocacy and patient care, along with their understanding of population health, health economics, and organizational and systems leadership.

This year’s school highlights include:

An Inter-Agency Agreement signed by the Health Resources and Services Administration and USU established a new Center of Excellence: The Military Center for Families, led by Penny Pierce, PhD, RN, FAAN Initially, team members will identify service and policy gaps in maternal-child care within the military system, and develop education and research initiatives designed to improve the health of military families.

As part of the national effort to address the shortage of nursing faculty and the number of advanced practice nurses providing direct patient care, the Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare awarded a grant to the University to advance the scholarly work of five individual USU PhD in Nursing Science students and two scholar teams of nine Doctor of Nursing Practice students.

Inter-professional experiences to enhance provider identification and treatment of military sexual trauma were developed through collaboration with Dr. Ann W. Burgess, DNS, RNCS, FAAN, a visiting professor from Boston College, as well as the GSN and School of Medicine (SOM) faculty. The first pilot of a new online military sexual trauma course was launched in November 2014. This modular online course is integrated into both the GSN and SOM curriculum, and in March 2015, SOM and GSN students will participate in an interactive, interprofessional sexual trauma patient simulation at the Val G. Hemming Simulation Center.

The GSN is the only military and federal Graduate School of Nursing. This premier school is entrusted with educating the next generation of military and federal nurse leaders, scientists, clinicians/practitioners, educators and policy makers.

Recent graduates who have provided, or are providing, critical leadership include:

Victoria Davey, PhD, MPH, RN, a 2005 graduate, is currently chief officer of the Office of Public Health and Environmental Hazards at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The office focuses on infectious diseases of special concern to the veteran population, including HIV, influenza and environmental exposures.

Captain Lynne Slepski, PhD, RN, PHCNSBC, FAAN, another 2005 PhD graduate who works for the Department of Homeland Security, was detailed to work with the Department of Transportation on the Ebola outbreak. Her daughter is continuing a proud USU tradition and is a student in the School of Medicine, Class of 2015.

Army Major Ann Ketz, a 2015 PhD in Nursing Science candidate, received the Tiina Karu Young Investigator Award for Basic Photo-medicine Research at the North American Association for Light Therapy. The award was presented by Dr. Karu herself, a pioneer in studying the mechanisms of light at the cellular and molecular level. Ketz’ dissertation was entitled “Neuropathic Pain: Characteristics and Modulation of Macrophage/Microglial Activation.”